Navigation on autopilot and auto lane change. frequent feature you use for highway driving?

[coolmanfever]

So far my decision is to save $4K to invest in TSLA stock instead paying $4K to upgrade to EAP. I know autopark and summon are gimmick feature and party trick that many youtube reviewer drivers express that they do not use daily.
I do lots of highway driving daily for my work so many Navigation on autopilot and auto lane change may be helpful. But I am not sure if such features are fully developed and useful for daily driving. For those of you who has FSD or EAP for some times, do you use Navigation on autopilot and auto lane change often for your daily highway driving? Thanks for all the advices

 

[Knightshade]

I certainly do (or did pre-pandemic- I still use it as often as possible but it's far from 'daily' now)

One route in particular for example, from a friends place to my place, is about a 45 minute drive... there's about 5 minutes at each end on local roads... the rest is on 2 different interstate-type highways.

Once I'm on the onramp at the front end I turn on NoA....and I don't have to do a thing (other than provide evidence my hand is on the wheel) for the next 35 minutes as the car changes lanes, passes slower drivers, takes the interchange between the two highways to follow the route, and even takes my exit off the last highway at the end.

I have to take back over at the stop sign at the bottom of the exit ramp.


Likewise my (formerly daily) drive from home to work is about 35 miles... same 5 minutes on local roads at either end- but NoA otherwise handles the entire drive for me.

When I've taken road trips of hundreds of miles NoA does about 95% of that driving too- long as it's on major freeways/interstates it does a fantastic job.

I won't say it NEVER runs into something it can't handle... (bad weather, specifically, can drop you out of NoA into regular AP... and REALLY bad weather can even drop you out of AP entirely).... but the vast vast vast majority of the time it's excellent.

 

[Dan44]

No need, I'll save the 4K

 

[dmurphy]

The word I use for the lane changing is “sublime” ...

Not having to disengage autopilot - and just turning on my blinker to change lanes - really elevates the entire driving experience. It turns AP from a glorified cruise control into something other-worldly. Probably one of my most favorite features of the car.

 

[CharleyBC]

Yes, I use NoAP and Auto Lane Change a lot. There are a few config options. My preference is to let it change lanes without confirmation, and just vibrate the wheel to let me know it's about to do so. That tells me to glance at my mirrors to confirm safety. I've never had it try an unsafe lane change. Though it has done what I'd call a rude lane change--causing a following car in the new lane to slow down. But overall I like it a lot. I find it relieves much of the fatigue of long-haul freeway driving.

 

[RayK]

I would say I use NoA about 50% of the time when I'm driving the highway. I know my destination but I don't bother entering it into the navigation system. I've enabled auto lane change. I'm using EAP more and more, after first saying that I wouldn't bother getting it; I changed my mind after a free trial period. I will disengage EAP on tricky interchanges. And I've only used Summon a couple of times just to see how it works; same with Autopark.

 

[ucmndd]

Auto lane change is great, I use it constantly.

I almost never use NoA. It requires 5x more babysitting and heightened awareness than simple autosteer and changing lanes yourself. It’s MORE stressful and attention demanding than driving yourself - not less - which makes it worthless to me.

 

[Big Dog]

use auto lane change constantly on long trips. Love it. (That said, it is worthless in SoCal rush hour where its survival of the fittest.)

NOA -- never. I'm more than happy to change freeways by holding the wheel.

 

[TX_M3P+]

I purchased my car in March 2020 and have only done 2 long distance trips since taking ownership. One from Austin to Houston and back, and one from Austin to Corpus Christi and back. Both of these trips I used AP and NoA extensively. On the Houston trip I would say I was 50/50 between AP and manual driving and I really noticed how much less driving fatigue I had on that trip. On the Corpus trip it was more like 80/20 where AP did most of the driving and over a total of 10 hours of driving I drove maybe 2 hrs total. It was VERY nice!! On the Corpus trip I tried out Mad Max mode with lane change notification turned off and thought it did way too much lane changing for my liking, to the point where I could tell it was irritating drivers around me. I quickly turned lane change notification back on and prefer this option over the auto option as I can cancel any lane change that I don't agree with. All-in-all, if you do a lot of highway driving, AP and NoA are major game changers! However, for my typical daily commute in town, I don't use it that often, so it's an expensive option that I don't ultimately use as much as I'd like to, for now. I feel that once more of the in-city FSD options are added I will be using it a lot more, but until it can make left and right turns at intersections and completely handle traffic lights without my intervention, I find I spend more time turning it on and off than I do just letting it drive the car.

 

[Tam]

...do you use Navigation on autopilot and auto lane change often for your daily highway driving?...

Yes. I do. I turn on Autopilot as often as I can in any allowable road conditions, city, highways...

I have it to turn on Navigation on Autopilot automatically when Autopilot is activated. Thus, once the car enters a freeway ramp, it automatically switches to Navigation on Autopilot.

 

[cOoTeR]

I've found it really depends on the traffic as to how useful it is. It's really improved in the year that I've owned the car. But there are a few traffic conditions it's not good at and some it's awesome at. When traffic is relatively clear and flowing the auto lane change and navigate on autopilot are awesome. When traffic it's bumper to bumper stop and go like leaving a big sporting event it's great and a lot less stressful than manually going back and forth between the throttle and brake every couple of feet. But there it's a weird spot in between clear traffic and bumper to bumper that it doesn't do well in. Those traffic conditions where everyone is below the speed limit but not coming to a complete stop, the lanes alternate which lane is the faster lane and people are jumping lane to lane all around you, give autopilot a hard time. Auto pilot isn't aggressive enough to be safe in those conditions. It often won't do lane changes after turning the signal on even when the car in the other lane is letting you in if the other car isn't far enough back. It will react suddenly and irrationally to what other cars are doing. In my opinion if 0% is no traffic and 100% is completely stopped traffic Autopilot is great between 0%-80%and 95%-100% but that 80%-95% traffic congestion I don't use auto pilot.

One thing that used to annoy me is the main highways around me are mainly 2 lanes in each direction. Pretty mitch everyone drives 5 under or 5 over. What would annoy me is that after paying a slower car in the paying lane if they would jump behind me auto pilot would auto lane change back to the slow lane to get out of their way even if that meant jumping behind a slower vehicle in the slow lane. I set the settings so that I have to confirm lane changes so that has fixed the issue. But I guess the latest update allows you to stay in the passing lane but I haven't tried it.

Short answer i think the navigate on autopilot is worth it.

 

[TomT]

Yes, I use NoAP and Auto Lane Change a lot. Pretty much always when I am on the highway... It is definitely worth it to me.

 

[EnrgyNDpndnce]

Like others have said, I find NOA to be too much work to have the level of control I want while driving. But I love Auto Lane Change and use it on every interstate trip I make. Makes medium to long trips much easier and now that I’ve had it so long I can’t imagine going back to a car without it. Glad Tesla decided to offer EAP again so my next Tesla can have Auto Lane Change, no way I’d shell out $8k for FSD to get it but $4k for EAP I can stomach. This is a “to each his own” scenario obviously.

FWIW I do like Summon. Yes it’s a party trick feature but I have used it occasionally to get the car out of tight spaces and bring it closer to me when it’s raining hard. Hope the Summon feature (like others) will continue to improve over time.

 

[bdub85]

It's not worth 4k, but I love auto lane change. I had it on my last Tesla. That's really the only feature I miss out of them all.

 

[Stellavator]

So far my decision is to save $4K to invest in TSLA stock instead paying $4K to upgrade to EAP. I know autopark and summon are gimmick feature and party trick that many youtube reviewer drivers express that they do not use daily.
I do lots of highway driving daily for my work so many Navigation on autopilot and auto lane change may be helpful. But I am not sure if such features are fully developed and useful for daily driving. For those of you who has FSD or EAP for some times, do you use Navigation on autopilot and auto lane change often for your daily highway driving? Thanks for all the advices

Have EAP. Use AP every single time I am on the highway. Don’t care for NOA, but auto lane change with pressing the stalk is great.

 

[Mattopotamus]

Have EAP. Use AP every single time I am on the highway. Don’t care for NOA, but auto lane change with pressing the stalk is great.

When you use auto lane change with the stalk, does it alert you and then simply activating the turn signal moves the car over? I have used it where I activated the turn signal and then it moves, but not the reverse.

 

[dmurphy]

When you use auto lane change with the stalk, does it alert you and then simply activating the turn signal moves the car over? I have used it where I activated the turn signal and then it moves, but not the reverse.

Depends - you can switch between modes ... I use the 2nd mode all the time - haven't felt compelled to go "full auto" yet ...

"Full auto" mode - Navigate on Autopilot says "hey, I'm moving over", signals, and does it.
"Confirmation mode" - NoA says "hey, it's time to move over, signal with the stalk and I'll do it."

 

[Knightshade]

I've been on full auto mode for a while.. it does it a bit more slowly than when you totally manually just hit the stalk on your own to change, but otherwise works pretty well

The bit slower is an advantage in that it does still sometimes offer a lane change I wouldn't do myself so you have a couple seconds to cancel it if you wish.

 

[StanT]

So I still use the confirm lane change- but I do let Autopilot do most of the lane changing for me... (hint- you need to fully engage the blinker to change lanes... if you do the just give it tension to make it blink it may abort in mid lane change when you let go- which does not make my passengers happy) That said NoA I don't use very much... here in the NYC area we have some fairly sharp interstate interchanges. Yeah, Autopilot does them but in a few of them you fly into them like a bat out of hell and then slow suddenly to make the turn (I-287S to I-80W to name one). Though it works- its not very "relaxing." I'd rather just take the turn myself (and most of these the turn is only sharp if you stay in the lines... if you don't mind taking a slightly different trajectory you can take the turns at a faster speed without the g-forces- and autopilot does not do that.)

So do I like having the car change lanes for me? Yes, I use it all the time. Do I need it? No, BUT I think it completes Autopilot otherwise it may be more of a PITA. Am I glad to have FSD? Yes because I own my cars typically to their death. If I was planning on replacing the car in 3-5 years, I don't think I would have gotten FSD... but my wife and I plan to test the 500k+ lifespan, and I'm getting older so I suspect there will be a time within the next 250k that I will want the car to do most of the driving.. so for us, FSD was a good plan.

 

[TjckTock]

Depends a lot on the driver. I love it. I use it all the time - even around town with the new update that recognized traffic lights. However, my wife absolutely will not use it at all. She refuses, even, to use cruise control in any car. Says she likes to drive and I can't argue with that. So if you enjoy steering and pushing pedals then EAP is not for you.